
Glass. 
Book- 



'tQ.% 



H^'S 



'^ 



ADDRESS 



DBI-IVKRED BBPOBE THE 



NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY 



OF SAN FRANCISCO, 



AT THE AMERICAN THEATRE, 



ON THE TWENTY-SECOND DAY OF DECEMBER, A. D. 1852. 



BY REV. T. DWIGHT HUNT. 



Jpastor of tl)£ H^m (£nglanb CHIjurtl). 



SAN FRANCISCO: 
COOKE, KENNY & CO. PUBLISHERS 



eTATIONEP.S' BALI,. 



COHNEH OP MERCHANT AND MONTOOMEST STKBBTS. 



1853. 



\^- 



.-/?- 



9i-1 



ADDRESS 

BBLITERED BEPOBE THB 

NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY 

OF SAN FRANCISCO, t X2. 

"TIT 

AT -THE AIVIERIOAN T H E A T R E , 

ON THE TWENTY-SECOND DAY OF DECEMBER, A. D. 1852, 

BY REV. T. DWIGHT HUNT, 
|)ttstor of tijc lS[m CSnglanb CEIjurclj. 



SAN FRANCISCO: 
COOKE. KENNY & CO. PUBLISHERS. 

aiATIONSKa' HAI.I-. CORNER Or MEBOHANT AND ilOKTOOMERT 8TRSET8. 

1853. 



.MfS 



Ban FftANciaoo, December 23d. 1852- 
T. T. DWIGHT EUN'T : 

Dear Sir, 

The undersigned, members of tbe New England Society of San Francisco. 
'^r dr.^irous that the Oration delivered by yoTirself. upon the occasion of the commemoration of the 
. l:v- A.f -ur Pilgrim Fathers, at Plymouth, in 1G30, should be published, would respectfully solicit a 
r^f tlie fiatae. 

With respect. Sir, we remain 

Your obedient servants. 



JAMES WILSON, 
STEPHEN P. WEBB. 

E. KNIGHT, 

J. E. ROBINSON, 
FREDERICK BILLINGS, 
C. D. cnSHMAN. 

F. A. HUSSET. 
EDWARD P- FLINT, 



HENRY F. DANA, 

LOUIS R. LULL. 

H. L. DODGE. 

J. D. HUNT. 

R. N. BERRY, 

A. G. RANDALL. 

J. PERRY. Jr. 

JNO. P. H. WENTWORTE, 



< • » » » 



Ean Fbancibco. December 24th, 1852. 

Gen. JAMES WILSON. Hon STEPHEN P. WEBB, and others : 
Gentlembk. 

You are aware of the short time allowed me for the preparation 
of this Address. If. however, you judge it worthy of the form and circulation you propose to give it. X 
submit it to your disposal. 

Respectfully Yours. 

T. DWIGHT HUNT. 



WHITTON, TOWNE & CO., PRINTERS, 

EXCEI.6I0K PniKTINO ©FFICE. 

128 Clay Street, near Sansome. 



« » 



7 



ADDRESS. 



Mr. President, 

Akd GentlemeI! of the New ENGi^iND Society} 

The day we celebrate was like any other wintry day of 
1620. Its cold, its snows, its rock and ice bound coast, itg 
leafless forests whistling in the wind, or echoing to the 
whoop of the Indian, the howl of the beast, or the moan of 
the surf, were no more uninviting and forbidding than was 
usual in December, on the borders of a northern sea. 

But the day will never be forgotten. It became the 
starting point in the history of a people, few only in their 
commencement, but whose institutions are to-day felt in 
tlie religion and government of every other. On that day 
a few families landed on the shores of a wilderness, whose 
children, in two hundred years, were to build thek homes 
over the graves of a hundred tribes, and through vast 
forests and beyond mighty rivers, and over high and distant 
mountains, stand at last where we stand, and from the 



4 



Western limits of the New World look over to tlie Eastern 
limits of the Old. Those few men were our Fathers. We 
are proud to be their Children. 

For the first time, since the discovery of the Continent, 
was a colony planted at the right time, on the right principles, 
in the right circumstames, in the right place, and by the 
right men. 

More than a hundred years had been wasted in fruitless 
experiments. The Spaniards first entered on the career of 
discovery, conquest and wealth in the Western Ocean* 
Not, however, till after John Cabot, a Genoese, under the 
patronage of Henry VII., of England, had discovered the 
American Continent, was their attention diverted from the 
Islands to the main shore. Florida was the first part of 
the present teritory of the United States they attempted 
to colonize. But after several unsuccessful expeditions to 
occupy the soil and develope its wealth, extending their 
researches through most of the Southern and Western 
States, they left the country on which they had sought so 
faithfully, but so vainly, for gold. 

The French next entered into competition for possession 
of the soil. After a few years of toil and suffering they 
yeilded at length to Spanish invasion, and relinquished a 
Colony they had commenced on the shores of Carolina- 
Better success, however, attended their settlements on the 
banks of the St. Lawrence. A fort, a town, a trade, and 
cultivated fields, made them the first settlers of Canada, 
But the Colony languished through its existence and finally 
yeilded to English arms. It commenced wrong. Men of 
enterprise were at its head, but they had no industrious 



and virtuous yeomanry to carry out their plans. Twice 
France empted her prisons on the new territory, and 
with criminals attempted to lay the foundations of a new 
empire. The folly was soon acknowledged. During the 
fii-st winter one was hung, several were put in irons, and 
many others, women as Avell as men, were publicly whipped ! 
From such material not even Cartier nor Roberval could 
form a prosperous community. It was not till Champlain 
with a better class of pioneers founded Quebec, that the 
colony of New France was firmly established. 

In the mean time England had caught the spirit of 
France and Spain, and through several distinguished navi- 
o-ators undertaken to continue her discoveries and take 
possession of the Western shores. The honor of the first 
discovery of the coast already belonged to her. She now 
commenced settlements in Newfoundland and North Car- 
olina. That at the North became permanent at once, 
principally from its proximity to the fisheries, which even 
then made England and France jealous rivals on the seas. 
That at the South at first failed. Not even the genius of 
Sir Walter Raleigh could overcome the obstacles in the way 
of the first settlements of the Roanoke. 

That distinguished man and early friend of America, 
after fifteen years imprisonment, died under an unjust 
sentence, and by the hand of an ungrateful king. But the 
grateful citizens of North Carolina have reversed the 
judgment of the Court of James, and reared to their early 
patron an enduring monument, by giving his name to the 
present Capital of their State. It was a revival of the old 
^'City of Raleigh," w^hich had been founded more than a 
1* 



6s 

hundred years before on the Island of Roanoke, and which 
enjoyed the distmguished honor of being the birth phice of 
the first daughter, of English parents, born in the United 
States, in 1587. It was a noble act of a generous people, 
to honor its founder by renewing, in their present seat of 
government, that first but soon desolated city. 

The next attempt of the English was made on the banks 
of the Chesapeake. This colony, after years of struggle, at 
length prospered. But even this, like other English and 
French colonies North and South, commenced wrong. It 
began with forty-eight " gentlemen," only four carpenters, 
and without a family. Its government, both civil and 
ecclesiastical, had not one popular element. Both Church 
and State were connected with a crippling and crushing 
power beyond the waters. The whole was too dependent 
on home capital and home control soon to stand or go alone. 
The first town, however, then built still stands ; and, with 
the exception of Augustine in Florida, is the oldest in the 
Union. The noble State, of which the builders of Jamestown 
were the first founders, became the Mother of Presidents, of 
whom the first and best was the glory of Americans, the 
immortal Washington. 

But Virginia, noble and great in and of herself, owes 
much of her glory to influences that went down to her from 
the North and East. In all other honors, except priority, 
Jamestown must yield to Plymouth. 

Thirteen years after the first settlement of Virginia began 
the first settlement in New England. 

That colony our Fathers planted at the right time. The 
time was approaching for the grand experiment of a popular 



government and a popular religion — an independency and 
a purity in Church and State which are the perfection of 
both. For this period long preparation had been made. 
But the world had made progress slowly. Only by con- 
vulsions, that had put back society almost as far as they 
advanced it, had one generation taken the lead of another. 
Advances made in one age had been lost in another. Im- 
provements made by one people had been obliterated b}' 
another. At times all the world's best treasures were 
threatened with loss in general war or universal oppression. 

Egypt once took the lead of the nations. But all that 
remain of her ancient glories are the monuments of the pride 
and folly of her kings. Greece, borrowing some things from 
Egypt, and inventing and discovering others, has left 
structures magnificent in their ruins, and works of statuary, 
poetry and orator}^, and a system of mythology, that will 
survive in unrivalled beauty — long after the last pillar shall 
liave crumbled from the temples of her gods. Rome bor- 
rowed and plundered from her rivals, though she added the 
iron of her own nature to the milder productions of the 
south, both in her literature and her laws ; and perpetuated 
at her capital and disseminated throughout her wide domains 
the arts and the civilization she acquired. Whereever she 
bore her arms she carried also her customs and her laws. 
Thus Spain, France, Germany, and finally Britain, received 
both their conqueror and their teacher. 

On Britain, however, a sturdier, yet better growth of 
manhood grew up than the world had yet seen. After 
the struggles of various conquerors, the blood of many brave 
nations of the north were mingled in one superior race. In 



8 



tbe course of time, and by the general laws of human 
progress, the Anglo-Saxon developed into the leading nation 
of the civilized world. But there seemed, even then, to be 
a limit to civilization. Some new elements were needed in 
society to advance it. Some gi^eater facilities were required 
to keep the world in motion. Moreover, what should pre- 
vent the reversion of the wheels whose onward revolutions 
had advanced mankind thus far ? Doubtless, Christianity 
had raised Western and Northern Europe above the ancient 
world. But Clmstianity had stooped to paganism and 
folded its superstitions to her bosom. Its idols had been 
gradually set up in her churches. Its manacles had clasped 
her wrists and bound her down to the servitude of the 
powers of darkness. What then should prevent the return 
of men half civilized to complete barbarism? Why, 
with the weight of a corrupted Church, crushing the neck 
of the best nations of Christendom, should not even Eng- 
land fall to the old level of Babylon and Egypt ? Simply, 
because she threw the burden off. England followed Ger- 
many in throwing off the Papal yoke. 

Preparatory to this the mariners' compass had come into 
general use. This had enlarged the sphere of human 
enterprise, and so enlarged the Adews of men. Then had 
followed the art of printing. This had afforded facilities 
for the diffusion of knowledge, and so awakened and given 
new impulse to human thought. Then had succeeded the 
Reformation, under Luther, in Germany. Thence it had 
spread into Switzerland, France and England. Thus con- 
science had been set at liberty. Liberty of person was 
soon demanded. The shackles had thus gradually fallen 



9 



from the mind and body of England, and thenceforward 
the world was destined to be free ! 

But not under Henry VIII., nor under the bloody Mary, 
was the English Colonization of the coast of the United 
States, commenced. They were both zealous Romanists, 
though they broke from their allegiance to the Pope, and 
had our shores been colonized under their patronage, the 
mitre as well as the crown would have been transferred to 
these States, and only another Europe would have grown 
up in mighty oppressions and deep degradation. 

It was not till the fires of Smithfield had been extin- 
guished, and Elizabeth, the head of established Protestantism, 
had succeeded to a long and prosperous reign, that the way 
was rapidly opening for the settlement of the New World. 
But, though eventually a firm Protestant, Elizabeth perse- 
cuted Protestants. That persecution brought forward into 
prominence the Puritans, a sect that had first attracted 
'notice during the reign of Mary. The same persecution, 
continued under king James, drove -a company of those 
Puritans to Holland. A part of the company, weary of 
waiting for toleration in their native land, sought, in 1620, 
on the borders of a savage wilderness, over the Western 
Ocean, " freedom to worship God." These were the founders 
of the colony of Plymouth. 

At a time when inventions and discoveries had afforded 
facilities for the promotion of knowledge, and for the 
advancement and perpetuity of civilization; when reformation 
in religion had awakened the mind to think, and emboldened 
men to write and speak ; when Protestantism had infused 
activity into the mind of the leading power of the world ; 



10 



when the old feudal system, that had so long bound society 
by the h'on law of caste, was yielding to the force of popular 
improvement ; when religious dissension had awakened 
political discussion, and a thirst for religious freedom kindled 
desires for political independence; then those few exiles, 
inured to toil, disciplined by persecution, enlightened by 
observation at home and abroad, strengthened in virtue and 
practical godliness by a courage that had confronted kings 
and queens, sought a home and a church on the Western 
shore. 

One year before, a pestilence had swept off the tribes 
inhabiting the coast where they landed, so that where they 
expected to meet the arrows of a savage foe, they found 
deserted wigwams, and the graves of those who built them. 
They found also, to their joy, an interpreter to the tribes 
that soon came to their settlement. That interpreter was 
an Indian, who had been taken by a previous party of 
discoverers, sold into slavery in Spain, but who, having 
escaped into England and acquired the language, had finally 
returned by another ship to his native tribe. Thus did 
these special providences of God, together with the signs of 
the times throughout the old world, conspire to indicate that 
the most favorable time for the establishment of a successful 
colony had come. 

Again: The Colony of Plymouth was started on the 
right pmiclples. It was a colony of families. Previous 
colonies on the coast had been communities of men. Such 
was the cotemporary settlement at Jamestown, at its com- 
mencement. Even its first reinforcement consisted only of 
"vagabond gents and jewellers" in search of gold. Not 



11 



tin years of doubtful struggle, and almost failure, was an 
attempt made to correct the evil by the importation of ship 
loads of fair young maidens, to become the wIa'cs of the 
adventurous pioneers. Two cargoes of the precious freight 
were successively landed on the shores of the Chesapeake. 
They proved to be the most profitable investment of the colo- 
ny. Virtue had then a home. Society, resting on the family 
basis, became permanent. Had it been so from the beginning 
Virginia would not have lost her first important years. 

But the fathers of New England brought the mothers of 
New England with them. Wives who had shared with their 
husbands the persecutions of England and the privations of 
Holland, came to share with them the toils, the perils, but 
also the wild yet hopeful and delightful freedom of America. 
Noble wives of noble men, true to their heart's love, faithful 
to their husbands, their country, and their God, they were 
the angels of the Pilgrims over the waters and on the shore. 
They made the wigwam cheerful. Their voices in song 
made the spreading tree a temple. The voice and the forms 
of their children gladdened the forest home. Worthy Mothei'S 
of New England's daughters — they shall have a place by 
the side of the Fathers in the hearts of their children, from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific, to the latest generation 1 

The colony of Plymouth was, therefore, a colony of per- 
manent homes. It was not a colony of commerce. Our 
fathers left England forever. They came to settle their 
children around their graves. They brought their hearts' 
best treasures with them, that no old attachments should 
take them back. Therefore they early loved the land that 
was to be the inheritance of their children. Therefore they 



12 



sought to conciliate the tribes that were to be the ally or 
the foe of their posterity. Therefore they cherished schools 
that should educate their descendants. Therefore they 
guarded morals and fostered churches that would bless 
distant generations. No mere adventurers thus live for the 
future. No temporary seekers of gold thus lay foundations 
for ages to come. Other colonists, North and South, looked 
back to France and Spain and England as the home of their 
old age. Their hearts, therefore, always clung to the soil 
and the institutions of the old world. The new world was 
to them only a place of temporary exile. They cared not 
how much they corrupted it. They made every endeavor to 
impoverish it. The least they could leave for those who 
should succeed them the better for themselves. Had such 
been the policy of our fathers, the waste wilderness they 
converted into gardens would have yielded only to scenes 
of still greater desolation. 

The colony they planted was established on the principles 
of equality and democracy. There was no high blood among 
them to claim distinction by inheritance. There were no 
titles among them but such as the people conferred. From 
the same rank in life, they were on terms of social and 
political equality. Of choice, therefore, they readily adopted 
a republican platform on which to stand, though with true 
loyalty they acknowledged the crown of King James above 
them. For nearly twenty years the whole adult male pop- 
ulation constituted the legislature. Before they left the 
Mayflower the first company drew up and subscribed a 
compact which was the germ of our present constitutional 
liberty. It was no patent of nobility. It was no gi-ant of 



13 



lordly immunity. It was no title royal to lands unknown. 
It was a simple basis of a popular government for mutual 
protection. It was a concession of all private interests that 
would conflict with the public good. It was the organization 
of all individuals into a body politic, for the enactment of 
equal laws. That is true democracy. 

American republicanism was born in the cabin of the 
Mayflower. Some of us have seen, in the rooms of the 
Historical Society of Connecticut, the very old Holland 
chest, on which the instrument was drawn up and signed, 
and felt an honorable pride in our descent from the original 
democracy of America ! 

The colony our fathers planted commenced with an inde- 
pendent religion. 

They had fled from establishments, and thus left behind 
them the greatest tyranny of the age. Beyond the waters, 
they determined to place themselves and their children 
beyond the reach of hierarchal power. A devout and useful 
clergy they would reverence. Bible instruction they would 
heed. They would rise up before the man of God. But con- 
science was to be sacred. None should rob them of the right 
of private judgment. If, in self-defence, they fell somewhat 
into the religious fault of the age, and oppressed some who 
differed from them, they early saw the error and removed 
the wrong. Had the Puritans brought with them an 
established priesthood, to set up on the frozen shores of New 
England their ghostly domain, Roger Williams would never 
have consummated in Rhode Island the entire separation of 
Church from State. The independent church of John RoUnson, 
first of England, then of Holland, transferred by Brewster 
2 



14 



to the shores of the New world, was the imther of modem 
religions Uberty ; liberty that was first begotten in Geneva, 
developed in Scotland, born in England, rocked in the Pil- 
grim ship on the ocean, preserved through a periled child- 
hood in the colonies, but grown to maturity in the United 
States of America ! 

If afterwards taught a bolder and purer liberty, it was 
the vigorous constitution and indomitable moral courage 
inherited from the Puritans that brought the child to final 
and reliable independence. It is glory enough for Roger 
Williams that he was the child's guide. 

Again: The Pilgrims commenced their colony in the 
right circumstances. 

The isolated position of the colony was favorable to the 
maintainence of their principles. They were far enough 
removed from the French on the North, and the Spanish on 
the South, not to be corrupted by the contact. Therefore 
they were not tempted by the courteous lasciviousness of 
the one, nor hardened by the cruel avarice of the other. 
Moreover, the shadow of the old world did not reach over 
the waters, to overawe them by its towering pride, its giant 
power, its monstrous monopolies. The presence of no 
pompous forms tempted their children to depart from the 
simplicity of their worship. The splendor of no Court 
seduced their posterity from the plain virtues of democracy. 
No standing army burdened the industrious and corrupted 
the young. The distance, the expense, the terrors of the 
voyage, the destitution of the colonies, kept from their 
settlements the vicious poor, and the vagrant beggars and 
idlers of older lands. 



15 



Their independence of govermnejit lyatrmage freed them 
from many embarrassments. The burdens of the East were 
not, therefore, entailed on the West by compact. Greater 
equality of condition was thus secured. The feudal system 
was not established among them to create monopolies, aristoc- 
racies and oppressions. The right of primogeniture soon 
yielded to the necessity of the times and the spirit of the 
people. Lands were freehold. A system of public registry 
was established which has become almost universal. Thus 
the subdivision of the soil among the people broke up and 
prevented great estates, and so, by equalizing the condition 
of the people, laid a sure basis of a popular government. 

Society, too, was starting on mw soU. It could, therefore, 
start with every advantage for progress. There were no 
old systems to pull down. No inertia of prejudice was first 
to be overcome. No force of custom was to be resisted. 
There was not even the ruins of old things to remove. But 
at once the pioneers of civil and religious liberty could begin 
to build on their chosen foundation, and after their own 
model. They did so; and our great Republic is their 
eulogy. 

Again : The colony of the Puritans was planted in the 
rigU place. 

New England owes much of her character to her rocks, 
her frosts, and her rugged hills. Not one of the gorgeous 
colors with which the early navigators had painted the 
scenes of their discoveries belonged to the land first trodden 
by the Pilgrims. The sands of Cape Cod, the barren hillocks 
that stretch away from the Plymouth shore, the gravelly 
beds and rocky slopes that bore the stunted heath, or sent 



m 



up between the crevices the gnarly oak, these promised to 
the Pilgrim explorer only a hard-earned livelihood. The 
tardy spring, the blasting winds, the frequent drought of 
summer, the premonitory autumn, the hastening winter, 
these taught him the stern necessity of industry and economy.' 
The beautiful valley of the Connecticut did not soon tempt 
them to pleasanter homes and easier and more abundant 
harvests. Not one stream rolled down to them its golden 
sand to draw them hurriedly from the shore. Mountains and 
forests and the savage foe confined them to a narrow compass, 
till their united strength had started one mother colony of 
industry, purity, intelligent liberty, and independent piety. 
Afflictions, toils, perils, privations, kept them long looking up 
to God, strengthened them against the tendencies to corrup- 
tion, and made knowledge, liberty and religion the only 
valuable legacy they could bequeath to their children. 

To the untempting soil, the severe climate, the absence of 
gold, the want of inducement for the investment of capital, 
to these we owe it that the avaricious and bigoted Spaniard 
had not defeated the English occupancy of the land by the 
slavery of the Indian tribes, and by the double yoke of Spain 
and Italy. To those natural qualities of New England which 
demand fortitude of mind and hardihood of body, do we owe 
in a great degree those social, intellectual and religious 
excellencies so peculiarly her own. Had Massachusetts 
been as Cuba in nature she would have been as Cuba in 
condition. Had New England been as Mexico in minerals 
she would have been as Mexico in morals. And without 
the religious as weU as intellectual basis, no where so well 
laid as in the land of our Fathers, our Republic would have 



17 



been like their's, the prey of priestly and military despotism,, 
and the contempt of the world. 

Had wind and tide borne the Mayflower southward, and 
by the " Father of Waters " introduced the Pilgrims to the 
great valley of the West, the present history of New England 
would not have been written. The history of emigration 
has too sadly proved how slow are the sons and daughters 
of the educated and the pious to build school houses and 
churches, where a little labor rewards with plenty, and a 
small investment hastens fortune. The Islands of the sea, 
and these attractive shores, are strewn with wrecks to ad- 
monish even the descendants of the Puritans, of the dangers 
of perpetual summer, easy indulgence, and abundant gold. 

Rough New England ! 

Hard to plougb, her atony hills, 
Hard to till her aandy plains. 
Hard her ■winds and storms to breast. 
Hard her -wintry coasts to brave. 

But the granite of her liills is more precious than our quartz^ 
Her plains have yielded greater riches than our placers.. 
She has given 7ne7i, p7inciples, and imtitutions, as an example- 
and a standard to the world ! 

Not one stone too many have our fathers turned. Not 
one drop of sweat or blood too much have they shed to 
subdue the soil, the climate, or the foe. Their sons and 
daughters, while they enjoy the rich inheritance left them^ 
are proud of the hard muscle and enduring self-sacrifice by 
wliich it was earned. 

It is almost needless to say, in conclusion, that the first 
colony of New England was planted by the right men. 

The character of the Puritans may have been austere. 



18 



But stuff less sturdy would have yielded to the stern 
necessities of the times. The times demanded just such 
men. The times created them. The times continued them 
till the establishment of their great principles requu-ed them 
no longer. 

They were indeed a peculiar people. But their peculiar- 
ities were not without reason. They grew out of their 
principles. Consistency demanded them. True, they were 
odd ; but they were honest. They trusted God, yet helped 
themselves. They loved to pray, but as we know full well, 
dared to fight. They loved England, but preferred freedom. 
They loved liberty, but they cherished law. They obeyed 
law, but resisted tyranny. They acknowledged a king, but 
the very first government they established was the germ of 
subsequent independence of the crown. They revered the 
ministry, yet made the spiritual as well as civil officer 
dependant on their choice. If for awhile they were intole- 
rant, they were never hypocritical. If not gallant, they were 
brave. If not courteous, they were true. If they flattered 
not kings, they eventually elevated the people to sovereignty. 
Kthey discarded the crucifix, they all the more honored 
Christ and loved the church. If they placed the Bible 
before the classics, and the clergy before the magistrate, 
they also valued learning, and maintained the law. If they 
discouraged display and amusements, they ennobled man by 
enthroning the virtues. If they undervalued refinements, 
they taught every child of the colony to read, to work, to 
pray. The superficial observer may sneer at their oddities, 
but every student of their history must admire their lives. 
Self-exiled from their country, persecution had only devel- 
oped their great qualities for great deeds. 



19 



They were Englishmen. They were, therefore, the world's 
best seed with which to start on a new and ample soil a 
giant race. England may well be proud of America : but 
America should revere England. Her soil is sacred with 
the dust of the good and great. Only Old England could 
have been mother of the New. Of all nations her monarchy 
only could have developed into the constitutional republi- 
canism of America. No other land could have produced the 
Pilgrims of 1620. 

But the Festival of today is not all joyous. New England 
mourns, and we mourn with her. Her greatest son now 
sleeps with her fathers. She has other sons, but she weeps 
as though she were childless. Not till she gives the world 
another Webster will she be comforted. But while the 
world remember Webster, she and the whole Union will have 
reason to be proud. For he lent dignity to man. He gave 
fame to his country. He made her literature classical. He 
elevated the standard of her courts. He made her Senate 
a house of nobles. He imparted greatness to her statesman- 
ship. He widened her policy. He centralized her power. 
He immortalized her Constitution. He gave to the old Bay 
State, the Commonwealth of the Pilgrim Fathers, her first, 
her proper place in the Revolution and the Union. That 
Union he lived to preserve " one and inseperable." On the 
floor of Congress he had no equal. In the ofiice of State he 
had no rival. Before a bench of judges his logic was irre- 
sistible. Over a jury his power was complete. On great 
public occasions, and in all great political emergencies, he 
always bore away with him the hearts of his countrymen. 

And he bore them to the tomb. That tomb he had long 



20 



before built at home. That home he had selected near the 
Bay where the Mayflower anchored, and not far from the 
Rock on which the Pilgrims landed. Thu'ty-two years ago, 
on the second centennial of that memorable event, Webster 
stood on that Rock and paid a tribute to his fathers worthy 
of the son. 

But the great man has lain him down to rest with the 
Puritans who sleep around him. Yet his voice will long 
fall powerful with mighty words on the ears of judges, 
jurors, deliberative bodies, and breathless or applauding 
multitudes. Long will the grandeur of his person rise up 
to overawe admiring men. Ever will the memory of those 
who saw and heard him retain the impression of his presence. 
New Hampshire has no such granite left. She gave to 
Massachusetts the choicest block from her mountains, to cut 
and fit for that pillar in the Capitol which has just crumbled 
into dust. 

Sons and daughters of New England ! You are the rep- 
resentatives of a land which is a model for every other. You 
belong to a family whose dead are the pride of the living. 
Preserve your Urth-right. 

By virtue, that frowns on vice ; by integrity, that scorns 
a bribe ; by industry, that honors labor ; by patriotism, that 
lives for coming generations ; by religion, that builds national 
grandeur on intelligence, justice, and truth, live worthy of 
your ancestry. 

Here is our Colony. No higher ambition could urge us 
to noble deeds than, on the basis of the colony of Plymouth, 
:o make California the IVLvssachusetts of the Pacific. 



